TKO I am ALL for starting from nothing and not using the nicest equipment and like you I am a "kid" in this industry with only a few trucks and a few employees. As, I am sure you did, I read all the post when I started at 17 about how.... "you NEED to work for someone for 5 years" "You cant safely cut trees down with little experience"...and all that other happy stuff. But I started with nothing, listened to these "old" guys (no offense guys haha) and now I have an extremely successful business. But unlike you I think I may have had a more open mind toward what they said.
A: Your truck minus the paint job, looks utterly unsafe! Can you even buy parts for that bucket anymore? I have no room to say any more as I dont have a bucket but I can tell you that my Geckos and my saddle are worth as much as that truck...scary? yes!
B: Your pics on your website lead most here to conclude nothing but, you have no idea what you are doing. The Oak in that pic? granted it is a take down...what were you thinking? If you fell it like that, you will be digging out 3 foot pieces of all those stubs and backfilling all the holes. no?
That spruce...why wouldn't you just climb it? 25 minutes tops! and 35mins raking and loading logs. Instead you have 25mins with a ladder/rope and 60mins raking the entire length of the tree.
C: Safety! Looking at that pic on your site...It looks like you and your guys should be drinking Pina Coladas not using chainsaws. Tee shirts, shorts and sneakers? I remember reading somewhere on the 100th something page of this thread that you are a safety stickler...
You can think and do as you please, I would only ask you take what criticism these professionals say with a grain of salt. Just remember that most of them of them have been where you and I are and have learned from their mistakes. Good luck man!
Thanks for writing actually that spruce got loaded onto a flatbed full length minus the few feet I cut off the top so it wouldn't hang off the back.
Someone wanted to dump a few loads at our property so I told them no problem, But you have to take this with it.
They didn't have a problem.
i left the oak looking as terrible as I could, to encourage them to finish paying their balance, I will get more pics when we go back to finish after all payment are made(in March( we gave them a payment plan) I even left a few full length branches on the backside of the tree I am not sure if you can see it in the pic.
So far all the payments have been coming in on time now that they realize that we are leaving it standing till we get all of our money. Yes I know it is kind of unprofessional( but we don't work for free).
So far everything I have needed for the bucket I have been able to get. Even a new bucket so far the best price we have gotten for the bucket is $850.00 So we are checking into a few more places before buying one.
Speaking of buckets anyone know what happened to the replacement buckets for sale on ebay that where from the $200-500 range depending on size and features?